Tyrone - GAA Centre at Garvaghey

I visited Tyrone's Garvaghey Project over the weekend, and was astounded by what I saw.

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Garvaghey is spread over a huge area, 43 acres to be precise, and the huge pillars at the entrance are like driving into a top hotel complex.  It consists of:

Outside
- 5 full-sized, perfectly level, sandbased grass pitches (all floodlit);
- 1 full-sized 3G pitch and a half-size 3G training area (both floodlit);
- Adventure playground area for children;
- Outdoor amphitheatre consisting of 3 levels.

Inside
- 30,000 sq ft building in shape of a Celtic T - fitted out with curved glass facade, chrome & marble;
- 3 fitness suites, the highlight being the £40k anti-gravity running machine in one of them;
- A 200 seater lecture theatre for committee meetings or team tactical sessions;
- Numerous offices and boardrooms with flatscreen tvs and plush leather seats for meetings/county coaches/officials;
- 10 changing rooms, ranging in size from large to huge, plus an additional one for referees;
- Hot and cold jacuzzis for rehab after every training session and, luckily for Tyrone, a large medical treatment room;
- Trophy room dedicated to 3 senior AI wins;
- Canteen area where every side will receive a hot meal after training;
- Irish language corner;
- History area, looking at history of Tyrone (not just football);
- Large glass octagon with names of 292 Tyrone fans who donated £5k each.

Power
- Wind turbine being built to provide electricity for complex;
- Solar panels;
- Sensor lights throughout the building.


I was massively impressed - more than I expected to be.  By way of comparison, my friend who came with me said it was superior to what he saw at Manchester Utd's Carrington facility.  To have something like this built by and for Tyrone GAA is a great achievement, and will hopefully help Tyrone remain among the top football sides in the country for a long time to come.

costs an absolute fortune not only to build but the annual running costs are an absolute joke and in 10 years it will be lying vacant.

Absolutely no call for it TC if you ask me - a big white elephant in the making............

bocerty wrote:costs an absolute fortune not only to build but the annual running costs are an absolute joke and in 10 years it will be lying vacant.

Absolutely no call for it TC if you ask me - a big white elephant in the making............

Ah Boc, think big. We deserve it, and the players deserve it. If we want to compete with the likes of Dublin using university facilities, we have to aim big. I know what it costs to run a year, and it is not ridiculous in comparison to what other counties are spending on a single manager.

We may as well all give up after reading this.......Staggering!!!!

Boxtyeater wrote:We may as well all give up after reading this.......Staggering!!!!

It's well worth a trip to see, Boxty. As tourist attractions go in the North, I'd put it a bit ahead of the Titanic centre, and miles ahead of the Giant's Causeway. I'd suggest a few days in Omagh, from which you could explore it properly. Of course, it is cold up on the hill, so perhaps it's more a summertime excursion.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

bocerty wrote:costs an absolute fortune not only to build but the annual running costs are an absolute joke and in 10 years it will be lying vacant.

Absolutely no call for it TC if you ask me - a big white elephant in the making............

Ah Boc, think big.  We deserve it, and the players deserve it.  If we want to compete with the likes of Dublin using university facilities, we have to aim big.  I know what it costs to run a year, and it is not ridiculous in comparison to what other counties are spending on a single manager.  

3 questions TC
1) Why do we deserve it?
2) why do the players deserve it?
3) We competed with and came out on top of the whole country 3 times in 6 years without this centre of excellence - that would indicate we dont really need it so what difference is it going to make?

You also mentioned its location in a later post - who in their right mind would build this place where it was built, it is windy there all the time due to its lofty location and its not just a breeze blowing its a gale force wind at times.

As for cost, you suggest you know what it costs to run on a yearly basis comparing it to a years salary of a manager, believe me the cost of running it would pay several managers wages for one year and i am talking about those at the high end of the scale.

I fail to see what it is going to do to make us more successful as a county, we survived along time without it and i think we are losing the run of ourselves.

Boxtyeater wrote:We may as well all give up after reading this.......Staggering!!!!

why is it staggering Boxty, since when did bricks mortar and green grass make better Gaelic players???????

bocerty wrote:

Thomas Clarke wrote:

bocerty wrote:costs an absolute fortune not only to build but the annual running costs are an absolute joke and in 10 years it will be lying vacant.

Absolutely no call for it TC if you ask me - a big white elephant in the making............

Ah Boc, think big.  We deserve it, and the players deserve it.  If we want to compete with the likes of Dublin using university facilities, we have to aim big.  I know what it costs to run a year, and it is not ridiculous in comparison to what other counties are spending on a single manager.  

3 questions TC
1) Why do we deserve it?
2) why do the players deserve it?
3) We competed with and came out on top of the whole country 3 times in 6 years without this centre of excellence - that would indicate we dont really need it so what difference is it going to make?

4) You also mentioned its location in a later post - who in their right mind would build this place where it was built, it is windy there all the time due to its lofty location and its not just a breeze blowing its  a gale force wind at times.

5) As for cost, you suggest you know what it costs to run on a yearly basis comparing it to a years salary of a manager, believe me the cost of running it would pay several managers wages for one year and i am talking about those at the high end of the scale.

6) I fail to see what it is going to do to make us more successful as a county, we survived along time without it and i think we are losing the run of ourselves.

OK, answers to your questions (I've also numbered the points you made in other paragraphs to give answers to them too):

1) We deserve it because we have been loyal gaelic supporters and workers, and our hard work has resulted in 12 AI titles (minor/U21/senior) in the last 22 years.  People who feel that they don't deserve anything in life, never get anything in life.

2) The players put in huge sacrifice and efforts, and don't get paid for it.  Therefore, when training and preparing, they deserve to be treated like professional athletes.  They also deserve the chance to maximise their potential, and this will provide that.

3) To stand still is to go backwards.  You know well that team preparations have advanced light years beyond what they were 10 years ago, never mind several decades ago.  Also, having all that we need under one roof is perfect - saves hiring gyms, fields, physios, meeting rooms etc from various different locations and groups.

4) The location is reasonably central within the county, is just off a main road, and the massive site was available for the project.  I'm sure the players can cope with the wind - if anything, it will harden them, and better prepare us for taking on these southern softies  

5) You either don't know what it actually costs to run annually, or don't know what some intercounty managers are getting.  Let's put it like this, a certain Leinster county would allegedly only have to cull their manager twice to pay for it.  

6) Why do top sports teams all over the world have top facilities if they aren't needed?  Sorry Boc, the day of string for crossbars and pigskin footballs are long gone.  Look at the facilities than Dublin use at DCU, and look at how developed their young lads are.  We either join them or we lose ground.

1) We deserve it because we have been loyal gaelic supporters and workers, and our hard work has resulted in 12 AI titles (minor/U21/senior) in the last 22 years.  People who feel that they don't deserve anything in life, never get anything in life.

loyal supporters and workers have and always will be about as long as the association is about we dont need a centre of excellence as any sort of reward, Garvaghey offers nothing for the hard working men and women who are involved in clubs up and down the county, what are they going to get from it?????  The fact we won all those titles before Garvaghey came about shows we were doing something right without it.

2) The players put in huge sacrifice and efforts, and don't get paid for it.  Therefore, when training and preparing, they deserve to be treated like professional athletes.  They also deserve the chance to maximise their potential, and this will provide that.

The players arent being looked after nay better than they were before Garvaghey was built there was any amount of pitches and gyms available MUSA for a start, They have been treated like professionals for a long time now Garvaghey hasnt changed that.

3) To stand still is to go backwards.  You know well that team preparations have advanced light years beyond what they were 10 years ago, never mind several decades ago.  Also, having all that we need under one roof is perfect - saves hiring gyms, fields, physios, meeting rooms etc from various different locations and groups.

Most players wont use the gym facilities in Garvaghey, why would they drive from one end of the county to the other to use a gym when there is one next door.  I dont think we could be accused of standing still even before Garvaghey was built so i dont get that point.  There are still annual costs involved so are we really saving anything?????  

4) The location is reasonably central within the county, is just off a main road, and the massive site was available for the project.  I'm sure the players can cope with the wind - if anything, it will harden them, and better prepare us for taking on these southern softies Wink

why would you always want to play and train in gale force conditions ?

5) You either don't know what it actually costs to run annually, or don't know what some intercounty managers are getting.  Let's put it like this, a certain Leinster county would allegedly only have to cull their manager twice to pay for it.  

You imply here (once again) that you know everything and the rest of us know dick all - i know what is costs and its ridiculous and sooner or later those donating to Garvaghey are going to stop and where is the funding coming from then?

6) Why do top sports teams all over the world have top facilities if they aren't needed?  Sorry Boc, the day of string for crossbars and pigskin footballs are long gone.  Look at the facilities than Dublin use at DCU, and look at how developed their young lads are.  We either join them or we lose ground.

Losing ground comes more from not developing players properly than facilities available - we managed that for years with the facilities we had which arent bad.

Kerry won many AI under the training of the great Dr Eamon O'Sullivan, however, if they prepared nowadays using the same methods and facilities they wouldn't beat Carlow. Time moves on.

It's built now and, for the reasons I've given, I'm delighted that it is.

Thomas Clarke wrote:Kerry won many AI under the training of the great Dr Eamon O'Sullivan, however, if they prepared nowadays using the same methods and facilities they wouldn't beat Carlow. Time moves on.

It's built now and, for the reasons I've given, I'm delighted that it is.

what Kerry done under O'Sullivan has little to do with this discussion TC so i dont know where your going on that tangent.

If Tyrone prepared under Art McCrory they would get nowhere, the reality is however most teams are preparing at a level unheard of before with gym work diet GPS tracking systems etc do you really think Garvaghey is going to bring anything to the table that we couldnt have done without it?

You obviously do and there are others like you but there are many like me who think its a waste of money and totally uncalled for.

Last week Tyrone gave Armagh an overdue thumping for the arrogance they showed in Leitrim last summer, while this week we have invited our friends in the West to our home...

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Thomas Clarke wrote:Last week Tyrone gave Armagh an overdue thumping for the arrogance they showed in Leitrim last summer, while this week we have invited our friends in the West to our home...

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Given the breath of facilities available at Garvaghy, I wonder if the current breath of the Beirne brothers could be adjusted over a fortnight.....